


His Fear of Planes was Plain

by TheDoctorIsIcecube



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Fear of Flying, Link is so scared, Zelda is rich, planes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 20:50:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5263130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorIsIcecube/pseuds/TheDoctorIsIcecube
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zelda was at the airport waiting for her flight and the guy two seats over was crying. Turns out he's scared of flying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Fear of Planes was Plain

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry for that title.  
> -S

Zelda had an hour and a half before her flight, and nothing much to do. Of course, she had plenty of work to do, but she was too tired and there were too few seats for her to bother with that. Impa was supposed to meet her at the other end of the flight, and she probably wouldn't be happy to know that Zelda had spent most of her trip away working.

She was meant to be relaxing. That was the whole point of going away; a break from everything she needed to do. Reducing stress and all of that.

But how could she take a break when she had her father's business empire to run, and university studies to catch up on? There was no time for breaks, no matter how much everyone insisted.

She wanted to get a first. And she wanted to have money to finish her degree with. She wanted to go back to university to do a masters as soon as she could, and the more work she did now, the less time she'd have to spend on it all later.

Zelda pulled her phone out of her bag, refreshing her email and wincing at the amount of work-related messages that appeared. The cheery little 'ding' really didn't suit the amount of stress these emails would put her through. An ominous 'dun dun duuuun' might have been more appropriate.

There was someone crying just a little way away from her. Good, an excuse to ignore the emails.

She shoved her phone back into her pocket, examining the crier a little more closely. About her own age, male, sitting with his mobile phone switched on in his lap. Either he couldn't get a phone signal (Zelda understood how frustrating that was, she couldn't blame him for crying over it), or something was seriously wrong.

She didn't want to disturb him, but as she waited no one else went to help. She couldn't just leave him.

There was a coffee shop about ten metres away, so Zelda went and bought two hot chocolates, bringing both of the hot paper cups over to the bench where the crying boy was sat. 

"Are you okay? Want a hot chocolate?"

"What?" His hands reached out for the cup anyway. His voice was cracked and his eyes were rimmed with red. His phone was on standby on his knee.

"I said, are you okay?" Zelda took a sip of her own drink. "Most people don't cry in public places for no reason."

The boy shrugged and sniffed before wiping his nose with his sleeve. Delightful.

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's wrong." Zelda smiled warmly at him. "Let me help you."

"'M fine." He mumbled, holding the hot chocolate up near his face.

"And that's why you're crying in the airport? At least tell me your name." She patted his knee. "I don't bite, promise. I'm here to help."

He nodded but he didn't say anything much. "Um."

"Your name is Um?" Zelda grinned at him. He made a weak attempt to smile back. 

"M'name's Link."

"My name is Zelda. So what's wrong?" She just wanted to help him.

Link took a deep breath and slurped up a little of his drink. "Planes. I don't like flying. And my friend had to go home early so I'm flying by myself."

Was that it? Just a fear of flying? Flying wasn't even that bad. She'd been all over since she was five. Her father's work had taken her all around the globe. By the age of ten, Zelda had seen more countries than most adults. They'd be away every single break from school that was any longer than a weekend. They usually spent Christmas in another country.

"Planes aren't that bad," she said gently. "I've flown more than fifty times and I haven't got into even the slightest bit of trouble."

Link started sniffling again. "I'm scared."

"What flight are you on?" Link dug in his pocket, showing her his boarding pass. Zelda pulled hers out too, holding them side by side. "Looks like we're actually on the same flight. Do you have anyone sat next to you?"

He shook his head and the tears started again. No, please. She didn't know how to deal with crying grown men.

"I'll sit next to you," she offered. "You can cling to me or cry or pray or whatever you need to do to get through the flight and I won't judge you, I promise."

He nodded a little and drank some of his hot chocolate. His phone vibrated. Link set the drink down and picked it up, sighing and then tapping out a message. 

"Who was that? If you don't mind saying."

"Just my friend." He sighed. "Wanted to wish me luck."

"That's nice of them." Zelda smiled again, deciding that a change of topic might help his flight anxiety. "Are you at university? What do you study?"

He smiled shakily. "I'm doing a bachelor's degree in Maths at the moment."

"That sounds painful." She laughed. "Are you much good at Maths? You'd have to practically be a genius to take it at university, right?"

He shrugged. "Maths isn't that hard."

"If you say so. I'm studying Law, although I probably won't end up using my degree. Family business and all that."

"Businesses need lawyers." Link said. "Businesses without lawyers are twenty three point five seven six two times less profiting than those with lawyers."

"Did you get that statistic off the internet?" Zelda raised an eyebrow. 

"No, I worked it out just now based on my knowledge of business. I might be a bit off, though, but it should be accurate to within half a percent." He paused for a moment. "I got some of the stats off the internet but I worked the percentage out myself."

"That's...impressive." He definitely was some sort of mathematical genius, then.

"I never understand why people find this kind of thing hard." He seemed thoroughly cheered up now. By Maths. What kind of weirdo was cheered up by Maths.

"I couldn't work that out if you gave me six months and the best calculator in the world. You are genuinely impressive." Link blushed at her words.

"I did use a calculator." He laughed. "You can't just work out numbers like that in your head."

"That's still pretty damn impressive." She took another sip of her drink. "We should go and find our gate soon."

He nodded and finished his drink up. "Thank you."

"It's no problem, honestly." Zelda smiled at him. "Glad I could help you." He stuffed his phone in his pocket and picked up the rucksack that was at his feet.

Zelda gathered up her suitcase and glanced around, searching for a sign pointing to Gate 10. As they walked there, she noticed that Link was a little shorter than her. That was almost nice. She wasn't taller than many boys her age, and they liked to use this for intimidation.

Having someone shorter than her was much nicer for cuddling, she thought, and then blushed. Why had she thought that. She wasn't going to be cuddling Link.  
Link was nerdy and probably not cuddly at all. He was probably gay.

They sat outside the gate together for half an hour, idly talking about university and trying to avoid the subject of planes.

Then they were called to get on and Link started shaking. He tried to smile to cover it up, but it was plain to her.

"It's okay," she told him, sliding into the window seat. "You can have the aisle seat, easier to get out if you need to throw up in an emergency or something."  
He nodded. His hands were shaking and he looked very pale.

Link didn't say a word until take off, when he suddenly grabbed Zelda's hand. "Sorry but is it okay if I hold your hand? I can't do this I'm sorry I just need something to hold onto sorry."

She just nodded and let him hold her hand. She could read while someone did that. And Link was sweet and needed it. If he was a creep she wouldn't let him.

The plane lifted off the ground and Link whimpered, squeezing her hand so tightly she thought he might leave marks. He was murmuring 'please let us survive this' under his breath, over and over. Poor guy. She couldn't understand someone who understood Maths being so worried about a plane. "Link," she asked. "Can't you calculate the probability of something going wrong on this flight?"

"One hundred percent," he said immediately.

"Link." She almost wanted to smile at how silly he was being, but he looked genuinely terrified.

"Okay. Zero point zero zero zero one percent." He glanced at his feet. "Doesn't help much." He paused for a moment. "This doesn't count the remote possibility of the increasing percent of terrorist activity."

"That's not going to happen to us, don't worry." Zelda squeezed his hand. "We're going to be fine."

"I'm still scared." His right hand was twitching.

"It's alright, I promise." She let go of his hand, instead putting her arm around his shoulders. Maybe she didn't know him very well, but he was kinda cute and definitely scared.

Within ten minutes of the seatbelt sign going off, Link was asleep. On her shoulder. He was too sweet to pass up, even if he was gay.

He kept cuddling closer to her in his sleep, and eventually Zelda put her book down and just enjoyed the attention, even if it was being given unconsciously.

She remembered his phone in his pocket, and hesitated for only a moment before pulling it out and entering her number.

He could call her if he wanted. Maybe text. They could arrange to meet up somewhere, perhaps. Somewhere with no planes.

Link woke up about four hours into the eight hour flight and seemed very, very embarrassed.

She promised him it was okay that he'd fallen asleep on her, and he didn't seem in any hurry to move out of her embrace. Perhaps not gay after all.

Maybe she'd struck lucky. All the boys at her university were rich pricks or gay and also probably rich pricks.  
Link was smart and cute and possibly interested in her, and he was shorter than her. He was perfect. He was smart too, but not in the same way she was. She was smart with words and he was good with numbers.

They seemed to make a good combination, she thought happily. And this plane snuggling was more relaxing than her whole holiday had been. Maybe because she hadn't actually relaxed on this holiday, but that didn't matter.

"You seem to be feeling a little better," she said to Link when they were two hours from landing. His eyes were half closed and there was a little sleepy smile on his face.

"Jus' tired." He mumbled, very clearly blushing.

"Keep being tired all you want, I am fine with this." He blushed even deeper, and Zelda giggled.

Link had been napping a lot, and she'd gotten a lot of reading done.

"Are you going to be okay at landing?" Link shrugged, scooting nervously closer to her.

He'd changed a lot from the incredibly nervous and in denial boy who'd been crying while waiting for the plane.  
Zelda hoped that he was this cuddly even when he wasn't scared. Having someone snuggled up to her was a wonderful feeling.

She hoped he wasn't going to just ignore her after this. He might be too embarrassed about all of this to text her. From how happy he looked now, though, she didn't think he would ignore her.

Landing was bumpy, which was not at all fine with Link but it was fine with her because he was clutching her hand. It was strange how much she liked him after just an eight hour flight.

He was so sweet, and he kept holding her hand all the way through baggage collection. When they finally had to say goodbye, Link looked a little sad.

A couple of days passed, and once Zelda was back at university (and had been heavily lectured by Impa about the meaning of the word relaxation), she was starting to get a little worried Link would never text her. She wished she had thought to write down his number when she'd taken his. They could have already been on a date by now.

Late that evening, though, her phone buzzed with a text message, and like she had been doing for the past three days, she jumped to look at it.

'I really liked being with you before, I hope you didn't mind me sleeping. Could we meet up?  
-L'


End file.
